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I was never a big fan of Wal-Mart before going gluten-free, but I can’t help but shop there now, at least for certain items. We do our main weekly grocery shopping at Meijer, mainly b/c they have low prices and they double coupons and DH is a big fan of that. 😉 He is my coupon King. I go to Wal-Mart for my generic drugs, just can’t beat the prices. I also go for some toiletries and some of the Great Value brand items. A huge positive of the Great Value brand is that they clearly mark tons of their stuff “Gluten-Free” on the label. I am a huge supporter of companies that make my life easier and also offer those items at competitive prices. The chicken broth is $1.48 for a quart. Another bonus? I can’t eat onions, onion powder or any derivative and the Great Value Chicken Broth has no onion in it! Most other broths, even GF, contain some kind of onion flavoring. They also have my all-time favorite peanut butter, Dark Chocolate Dreams, made by Peanut Butter & Co for $3.56!! OH.MY.GOSH. That is a steal! Shhhhh….don’t tell the peeps at Wal-Mart that! Oh, they also have Rice Chex cereal for $1.66/box! Need I say more?

Okay, onto why I am writing this post. Aside from the Great Value brand being labeled GF or the other mainstream GF items, Wal-Mart has not had much in the way of GF specialty items. Last year they added a version of Gluten-Free Pantry’s Muffin Mix & Brownie Mix for under $3.00/each. That is a nice deal. Muffins are good. I have a box of the brownies to try in my pantry that I haven’t got around to yet. Yesterday, my neighbor told me that they now have a GF section at Wal-Mart. WOOHOO!! I had to head up there today to check it out. I have to say that I was impressed. Not only is there a section in the baking aisle, but there were some Pamela’s Chocolate Chunk Cookies in the cookie section, along with some Mi-Del GF cookies. In the pasta section, they had 2 varieties of DeBole’s GF Rice Pasta, penne & spaghetti. I also found Envirokids Bars in the clearance section for $2.35/box. Now, for the baking mixes, here is what I saw:

Wow. I am sure that you can identify what a joy this is to have items like this in a mainstream store. Not only does it make it easier to eat when you are away from home, but it offers more competitive prices on some of these very $$ items.

It looks as if Wal-Mart may be re-thinking their decision to stock gluten free products, at least at one of the ones near me. I’d come to count on them to have the gluten free pastas I love but they’ve run out and have not re-stocked for quite sometime. I’ve written to them and I hope that helps. I urge anyone else who has come to depend on Wal-Mart to stock these products to let them know how you feel.

As someone who is *just* starting out gluten free.. what are some easy shopping tricks to know? I guess what I’m asking is what items are pretty much always gluten free: popcorn? meat? all fruits and veggies? HELP!
I found your site because I live in the heart of Walmart country.